Abuse online

One of the targets for UN Global Goal number 16, ”Peace, justice and strong institutions”, is to end abuse and all forms of violence against children. Telia has a number of concrete activities supporting this goal.

Telia is actively participating in the fight against child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online. We maintain filters on our networks that block access to websites defined by law enforcement to be illegal for hosting CSAM. As Telia Company stands for and promotes an open internet, this is the only area where we have taken an active stand for voluntary blocking. We cooperate with other industry partners, law enforcement and NGOs to develop this area further.

However, although it has impact, blocking has limited effect on the real purpose, which is to prevent sexual abuse of children. So more needs to be done. One approach is to work in partnerships, where many actors work for the same purpose. In this context Telia works with NGOs like World Childhood Foundation, with technology companies like NetClean and with law enforcement. We regularly share our experiences and discuss with others on how to best move forward through innovative technology and partnerships.

We have also activated a technology in our Nordic and Baltic operations that alerts if CSAM is detected somewhere on Telia’s own internal IT systems. When such incidences happen, police are notified and a process to investigate and possibly ultimately press charges and dismiss an employee is started. The core purpose of cleaning up the internal IT-system from child sexual abuse material is to rescue children from ongoing or future abuse. By detecting and reporting people who watch child sexual abuse material on workplace equipment we can help the police to rescue children from ongoing sexual abuse and protect others from abuse in the future.

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Save the Children has issued a folder with advise to adults on how to protect children from sexual abuse online.